TY - JOUR

T1 - The Impact of Parental Mental Health Diagnoses, Trauma, and Coping Mechanisms on Their Children’s Well-Being

AU - DesRoches, Danika

AU - Mattheisen, Manuel

AU - Plessen, Kerstin Jessica

AU - Pagsberg, Anne Katrine

AU - Marin-Dragu, Silvia

AU - Orr, Matt

AU - Meier, Sandra Melanie

N1 - Funding Information: The current study was funded by grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (1024586; PJM 177968), the Canada Foundation for Innovation (38835), and Mental Health Services Capital Region Denmark. Funding Information: This work was partly funded by the Mental Health Services Capital Region Denmark and the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) Canadian Research Chairs (CRC) stipend [award number 1024586] and Patient-Oriented Research: Early Career Investigator Project Grant [grant number PJM 177968]; Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF) [grant number 38835]. Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - The transgenerational effects of parental diagnoses, trauma and coping mechanisms on children’s internalizing symptoms are not well understood. In a population-based study of 933 families combining data from a web-based survey and the Danish registers, we used an online survey of parents to examine how parental diagnoses, trauma and coping mechanisms affect the development of internalizing symptoms in children aged 6 to 18 years. To account for attrition, we used inverse probability weights in our regression models. Children of parents diagnosed with depression or anxiety displayed more internalizing symptoms than children of controls. Similarly, children of parents who experienced multiple trauma had significantly more internalizing symptoms. In contrast, we observed significantly fewer internalizing symptoms among children of parents who felt they could cope well. The protective effect of parental coping persisted even after adjusting for parental diagnoses or trauma. Interventions boosting parental coping mechanisms might help to prevent the development of internalizing symptoms in children even among patients who have been diagnosed with depression or anxiety or experienced a high trauma load.

AB - The transgenerational effects of parental diagnoses, trauma and coping mechanisms on children’s internalizing symptoms are not well understood. In a population-based study of 933 families combining data from a web-based survey and the Danish registers, we used an online survey of parents to examine how parental diagnoses, trauma and coping mechanisms affect the development of internalizing symptoms in children aged 6 to 18 years. To account for attrition, we used inverse probability weights in our regression models. Children of parents diagnosed with depression or anxiety displayed more internalizing symptoms than children of controls. Similarly, children of parents who experienced multiple trauma had significantly more internalizing symptoms. In contrast, we observed significantly fewer internalizing symptoms among children of parents who felt they could cope well. The protective effect of parental coping persisted even after adjusting for parental diagnoses or trauma. Interventions boosting parental coping mechanisms might help to prevent the development of internalizing symptoms in children even among patients who have been diagnosed with depression or anxiety or experienced a high trauma load.

KW - Children

KW - Coping

KW - Internalizing Disorders

KW - Parent

KW - Transgenerational

KW - Trauma

U2 - 10.1007/s10578-023-01626-6

DO - 10.1007/s10578-023-01626-6

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 37957447

AN - SCOPUS:85176430925

JO - Child Psychiatry and Human Development

JF - Child Psychiatry and Human Development

SN - 0009-398X

ER -